Sunday, February 17, 2013

Will Wyoming be left alone...again?

State Senator Eli Bebout says Wyoming can wait another year
to expand Medicaid. He speaks like someone who doesn’t know what it’s like to
be uninsured. Governor Mead says Wyoming needs “more answers.” They remind me
of the old adage, “Either lead, follow or get out the hell out of the way. If
he doesn’t do one or the other, Mead may well become the only governor in
America refusing to expand Medicaid coverage to the uninsured.

Nearly every other Republican governor is aboard. Recently Rick Snyder of Michigan embraced Medicaid
expansion, the latest conservative Republican governor to figure out what’s
best for his state. Snyder
joins several anti-Obamacare Republican governors signing on, including
Arizona’s Jan Brewer and Ohio's John Kasich. Republican governors in North
Dakota, Nevada and New Mexico have done the right thing for their people.

The National
Journal reports even Florida
Governor Rick Scott is wavering. Although Texas Governor and Tea Party darling Rick
Perry promises resistance, some GOP legislators are planning to join. Of
course. The Urban Institute calculates
each would receive $7 in federal aid for every $1 contributed to expanding
coverage.

But not Governor Mead.
Not Wyoming’s GOP legislators. They are standing firm, if alone, willing to needlessly
spend millions of your tax dollars while leaving constituents uninsured to
score meaningless political points. Wyoming has 30,000 uninsured people and spends
multi-millions providing a patchwork of medical care programs for them. Our hospitals
lose 200 million dollars annually caring for uninsured patients. But Wyoming
Republicans prefer to represent those who hate Obamacare more than they care
about the health of their neighbors.

Last year, the
Governor used your tax dollars on a quixotic joust to convince the Supreme
Court that Obamacare was unconstitutional. He’s a lawyer who should have known
better. The Supreme Court said Mead was wrong, that Obama was right.

However, the high
court ruled that under Obamacare the expansion of Medicaid was optional.
Governors could decide. The Tea Partiers pressed governors to resist Medicaid
expansion as a way of fighting Obamacare despite clear evidence it will reduce
the numbers of uninsured, save millions in tax dollars, improve the healthcare
system and provide needed medical care to those who now suffer and die early
from a lack of that care.

That mattered little
to Matt Mead and most GOP legislators. The most indecisive governor in Wyoming
history shrugged his shoulders even after the director of his own health department
said expansion of Medicaid was the best fiscal decision the state could make.
Told that Medicaid expansion could save the lives of uninsured people while
saving state taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, Mead said in effect, “This
decision is to tough for me. I am only the governor. I will let the legislature
decide.” Perhaps he thought they’d have the courage and empathy he lacked. They
didn’t.

Meanwhile nearly
every other Republican governor has decided that politics be damned, Medicaid
expansion is a good deal. Wyoming’s governor and legislators have operated on
myths while other Republicans have decided the facts and their people matter
more. For GOPers outside of Wyoming it makes sense. The federal government will
initially cover 100 percent of the costs, declining to 90 percent in a few
years.

Senator Charlie
Scott, the self-appointed healthcare guru in Wyoming told colleagues, with
absolutely no evidence, the feds won’t pay. The lemmings lined up and Wyoming’s
people will pay the price. You will continue to pay millions of dollars to provide
health care for the uninsured and you’ll continue paying for uncompensated care
at local hospitals.

Other states with
genuinely fiscally conservative governors and legislatures will be able to end
the programs they have funded to fill the gap. The taxpayers in their states
will save millions, their uninsured will have insurance and preventive care, and
their hospitals will no longer shift the costs of the uninsured to those with
insurance.

But not here. Not
Wyoming. We settled for a governor who believes he was elected to serve only
some of the people and legislators who were elected to serve even fewer.